OC WordPress Meetup Live Streaming Give Campaign

I love capturing content and sharing it with the world. Helping you share your content is even better!

Starting in 2011 I use to live stream all of our WordPress meetups onto YouTube and then make them available for everyone online to watch. I ended up recording about 78 different videos during those few years (playlist). I did all this because I was too lazy to take notes and wanted to the talk at our meeting and watch them later. I ended up sharing all the videos with everyone and received many compliments from people on saving their butts because they didn’t take notes or couldn’t make it to the meetup.

I slowly created an elaborate setup that took about 20 minutes to put up and at the end 20 minutes to put away. I even did a talk about it with the hopes of inspiring other WordPress meetups to stream their events and share their wealth of knowledge with people that missed their meetup (Jason Tucker: How to Stream a Meetup or Live Event).

Technology has changed and I’d like to continue with live streams at the WordPress Meetups in the Orange County but with a simpler yet more sophisticated equipment and just like before give back to the community and share what I learned about this setup with others by presenting at a future WordCamp.

Later this idea of recording events led me to record OC WordCamp, LA WordCamp, a Business Track as well as a few others `camps too. From live streaming to later launching our YouTube show and podcast WPwatercooler yet another way we give back to the community.

Jason Tucker and Sé Reed interviewing people at WordCamp SF 2013

Why?

I love learning from people and when I find the right teachers things just fall into place. Obviously, the folks that teach at our meetups work well for us and many of use have made careers from the info we have learned. I personally really want to showcase the info our group was sharing with others and save it for many to learn from at a later
Giving to this project is like giving to other meet ups so that they too can learn how to do this and do it in a way that has worked for at least one set of other meetups, the ones that I attend.

I want to do this some more but smarter this time.

What I’d like to do is to record videos for the OC WordPress Meetups (General & Designer in Huntington Beach and the Developer in Costa Mesa) and stream them live using the new Facebook Live feature that Facebook created, make the live cuts only accessible to the OC WordPress Facebook Group (and others if they like) and then edit down the clips to be uploaded to WordPress.tv (You can see the previously uploaded ones here).

A quick history lesson, my old setup.

Over the years, I slowly bought each of the components personally for my old setup until I came up with the one that I used for quite a while. It worked most of the time but was a huge pain to get working when the planets weren’t aligned. You can flip through my Slideshare from WordCamp Phoenix 2013 (see embed slide share above) where I show off the various versions I tried of this setup and the cost involved in each of the components.

Here is all the stuff I bought and had to set up each week to do the recordings:

MacBook Pro

BoinxTV (video switcher and capture) – $499.99

VGA Capture Card – $299

Logitech Webcam – $100

Tripod – $99.99

Passive VGA Splitter – $20

VGA Cords – $20

Long USB Cords – $20

Long Ethernet cord – $20

Grand Total: $1,079.97

The new setup

I’ve been researching some super simple setups that are portable and can allow me to do events quickly and easily using the camera and an iPhone or iPad. I found the Mevo which this video shows and looks pretty awesome:

Mevo is owned by Livestream.com and has opened up this hardware to be used with other services such as Facebook Live which is where we plan to use this at. Videos will be recorded locally so they can be uploaded in full high quality on to YouTube after some editing.

Mevo Pro Bundle

1 Mevo video camera (Black)

1 Mevo Boost power accessory (includes Ethernet connection)

1 stand by K&M

1 universal mount

16 GB microSD card and adapter

10 foot USB cable (for Mevo camera)

3 foot USB cable (for Mevo Boost)

2 USB chargers (US plugs)

Price – $ 549.00 (originally $649.00)Shipping – FreeTax – $ 49.42

Grand Total: $ 598.42

(616.60 to make sure we cover the paypal fees)

I have something to ask of you.

I need some help in funding this idea to start recording our meetups again. I attend them and learn a ton from them.

I want to provide this service to you all, I want to record the talks at our events and make them available for you to use, learn from and teach with.

Here are a few reasons why this make sense:

Many people use our meetups as stepping stones to presenting at larger conferences, watching yourself speak like this a huge confidence booster and a great way to sharpen your skills.

We’re a caring people, we love to share what we learn, this is the best way to do that.

Not everyone can make it out to our meetups, some even plan their flights into town just to attend but when they can’t they feel left out.

You can’t make it to each and everyone but you are a die hard learner.

You see a good cause and want to pitch in.

You attend regularly now but couldn’t in the past.

WordPress and the OC WordPress community are some of the most generous people I know; from teaching, sharing and caring I’ve learned a lot from you and I think others will as well.

Look, I feel weird even asking for this but I know that in order to do this right and stress-free I need something like this to pull it off. I enjoy giving back to the community any way I can and I need your help in continuing to do so. I’m looking for a bit more generosity from you in the form of money to buy this equipment.

date.

How does this help other Meetups?

There’s a bunch of ways that this can help other meetups, the main one is that I love sharing information and I will take the time out to document all the ways in which this type of system could be used at your meet up saving you time having to figure it out yourself.

Pitch in what you can and help me share your content with people just like you.

Help Jason Tucker buy new video equipment to stream our events.

$870 of $600 raised

$Donation Amount:

$20 - Thanks!

$50 - You are awesome!

$100 - Thank you, thank you, thank you

$200 - Amazing

$500 - Wow!

$600 - Boom, done!

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Donation Total:
$50

Note: If the amount given exceeds the amount needed I plan on buying a wireless microphone pack to go along with this setup to enhance the sound even further!

Updates

April 15th 8:12am – Wow you guys! Thank you for being so awesome! We’re at 1/2 the goal with 7 of you donating!

April 15th 10:30am – Still climbing! Thank you, I appreciate it!

April 16 7:54am – my family is out camping this weekend in San Diego and watching the outpour of people submitting in donating has been amazing for the most part we’ve had our goal with a few pending transactions things are looking pretty good for this project. Thank you! I think one thing that this plug-in Give lacks is an explosion that happens at the end of the bar indicating that you’ve gone over!

April 18 2016 – We hit our goal and then some. Below are 2 videos I recorded as a thankyou for all that you gave and for believing in helping out local WordPress community. I hope this becomes bigger than us once we get things figured out and can build a blueprint for others to follow.